Graduate Program Director Handbook
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Greeting

Graduate programs are not administered by a single person. Governance is shared, at any given time, among the department chair, the graduate program director (or coordinator), the departmental graduate studies committee, and, really, the rest of the department faculty. Over time, governance is shared among all those individuals who take a turn at these roles.

This shared governance model is the ideal, but it results in the need to provide continuity in the ongoing administration of graduate programs. We need a way to let new faculty governors know – and to remind returning faculty governors – of the operational particulars and details involved in running graduate programs at UNF. This handbook is meant to be one means of providing this continuity.

Another way to address this concern is to rely on the stability and expertise of the staff of the Graduate School. We welcome your calls and e-mails, your questions and your concerns.

1.2 Mission

The Graduate School supports and promotes graduate education at the University of North Florida. We accomplish this, in concert with the University’s academic colleges, by dedicating ourselves to:

excellence in graduate faculty, students, and programs, in part through cultivating students’ advanced knowledge and skills in their chosen fields, as well as their facility with research and other forms of scholarship;

a focused use of resources in the development and support of programs and in the recruitment and support of faculty and students;

the relevance of our graduate-level professional and liberal arts programs for our students and the communities we serve; and

our accountability to our mission, disciplines, students, the university at-large, and the communities we serve.